St. Clement Catholic Parish in Lancaster, Wisonsin shared a note from the pastor on the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 

Jesus’ commands to love God and love our neighbor are words that we desperately need to hear, because it shows us that God loves us and that he has given himself to us to show his love. 

“The Lord made us, we belong to Him; He knows us in our mother’s womb; and even before we were in our mother’s womb, God knew us,” Rev. William Vernon wrote. “Thus, keeping this Great Commandment is how we give to God what is His, for He has first loved us in such a way that we can indeed love Him in return!”

Our response to the love that he has given to us should be to love him and love others around us. 

“We keep these two Great Commandments by God’s grace, which we embrace in faith and receive by: Praying (raising mind and heart to God, listening and talking to Him); reading and contemplating His Word, the Bible; frequenting the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and Confession; staying close to him in His Church and His Teachings, consciously keeping His Commandments; loving one another in a selfless, self-giving way; and defending the God-given dignity of every human person made in His image and likeness, from conception to natural death,” Rev. Vernon wrote. 

Rev. Vernon explained that loving others is also a connection to the issue of abortion and the pro-life debate. Being pro-life is not a political issue, but rather an issue of love and morality. God will never ask us to participate or cooperate in killing children, but will always call us to a higher calling of cooperating in love and the proclamation of truth. 

“While some political parties, politicians and judges cultivate a culture of death and destruction through abortion and infanticide, Almighty God continues to call all His children to build a culture of life, to promote and defend the Gospel of Life, to truly love Him with all our being and our neighbors as ourselves,” Rev. Vernon wrote.